How Dalton Rushing Injected New Life Into Dodgers-Giants Rivalry

The Dodgers-Giants rivalry has new life, and a backup catcher is responsible.

Dalton Rushing is single-handedly reviving what has felt like a dormant divisional antagonism between the teams. Over the past three days, the second-year catcher has sparked controversy, been thrown at, and authored a dirty slide. He’s on a roll and has injected energy into a rivalry that had been a bit quiet while also coming across as completely unlikable.

On Tuesday night, Rushing was the endpoint of a relay that resulted in San Francisco’s Jung Hoo Lee being tagged out at home. As Lee remained on the ground, apparently injured, cameras caught L.A.’s catcher being dismissive of the injury. He claims that wasn't the case, and later checked in to make sure Lee was O.K.

In the top of the sixth inning on Thursday, Giants starter Logan Webb hit Rushing with a fastball into the ribs, then walked toward him.

Logan Webb DRILLS Dalton Rushing right in the ribs.

👀🤷‍♂️pic.twitter.com/nBqB16a59P
— KNBR (@KNBR) April 23, 2026

Rushing kept his head down and took his base, but there was some more bad behavior coming. Hyeseong Kim followed and grounded the ball to second baseman Luis Arráez, who fed shortstop Willy Adames. Adames made the catch, then sent the ball over to first while Rushing took him out with a slide. Kim nearly beat the throw but was called out anyway because Rushing was called for an illegal slide.

On replay, you can see why. He went far out of his way to take Adames out.

Is there a more unlikable player in baseball than Dalton Rushing lol pic.twitter.com/Zfex6QSLwv
— trev (@BayAreaTrev) April 23, 2026

Here’s a look at how far from the base Rushing was on that slide:

pic.twitter.com/IIbLB7ba3V
— no context giants (@nocontextsfg) April 23, 2026

The Giants were, understandably, furious. After the game, Arráez said the play was “not good baseball.” He all but said it was a dirty play, which it clearly was.

"It's not good baseball."

Luis Arraez believes Dalton Rushing's takeout slide in the sixth was a dirty play pic.twitter.com/Dpl7fXXo5R
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) April 23, 2026

After Thursday’s game, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts essentially said Webb hitting Rushing was intentional and didn’t seem to have a problem with it.

"It probably was (intentional) and, for me, (Rushing) said what he said. I don’t think he meant it too personally," Roberts said. "But they see it. Social media catches it. Webby’s an old school guy & he’s protecting his teammates."

Rushing has been making enemies around the division early in his career. Last weekend, the 25-year-old implied that the Rockies might have been cheating after they beat L.A. 4-3.

"I think they had a good game plan as an opposing team, and maybe I pitched into their game plan," Rushing said. "As far as calling pitches, I'm not 100% sure. I just, I think it's odd some of those hitters that do what they do, they go up there, and they were only on the first pitch that was thrown. So it's a little fishy."

Accusing opponents of cheating won’t earn you the best reputation.

Rushing is having a great start to the season. Through 10 games, he’s hitting .419, with a .486 on-base percentage while slugging a ridiculous 1.161. He has seven home runs, 14 RBIs and entered Thursday with a wRC+ of 348.

So unlikable, but also good.

A former top prospect, Rushing struggled as a rookie in 2025. He slashed .204/.258/.324 with four home runs, 24 RBIs, 58 strikeouts and 10 walks in 53 games. His 62 wRC+ was awful.

He’s bounced back this year so far, but is on his way to tick off the the entire NL West in the process.

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